I liked you better when you weren't cool

[sovay]

Does anyone know how to remove the floating Copilot button from a version of Microsoft Word on which I disabled all so-called connected experiences the day I bought the new license more than two years ago and which has nonetheless just sneakily updated itself so that I have an AI-inducing rainbow-colored heartworm constantly keeping pace in the down right corner of the document, blocking out text which I am trying to write? I have looked for suggestions online and most of them seem to require preference options not available in my Mac. But what I need in a Word document is words and nothing else and I cannot deal with a planet-killing visual fault in the middle of them, on top of which the fact that this obscenity can be intruded into my software makes me want to headline the news for the disappearance of the Roko's basilisk boys who put it there. If a program is on my computer, the only person who should be able to tinker with it is me. I am not even eloquent, I am so furious. Any actionable suggestions would be appreciated.

[ETA 2025-11-12 22:23] JESUS CHRIST AFTER AN EVENING ON THE PHONE WITH APPLE SUPPORT WHICH WAS FLABBERGASTED BY THE PROBLEM AND NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER FROM MICROSOFT I FIXED THE PROBLEM MYSELF WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF PRE-COPILOT MICROSOFT WORD BECAUSE I NEVER THREW AWAY THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PACKAGE FROM 2023 IT WAS STILL IN MY TRASH I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO REINSTALL FROM MY LITERAL TRASH WELCOME TO 2025

Comments

[asakiyume]

I had the exact same problem: I’m using a version that supposedly doesn’t have Copilot at all, and suddenly last night, there was the icon on every doc. I had chat support w/someone who was using an AI assistant (hilarious screenshot proof), was on for about 45 minutes, deinstalled and reinstalled, all to no avail. Finally I said I needed to go and would try later. 🤬

[sovay]

I’m using a version that supposedly doesn’t have Copilot at all, and suddenly last night, there was the icon on every doc. I had chat support w/someone who was using an AI assistant (hilarious screenshot proof), was on for about 45 minutes, deinstalled and reinstalled, all to no avail. Finally I said I needed to go and would try later.

I'm so sorry! Blech. Can you tell me where the version you reinstalled came from? I was able to eradicate the sudden contagion of Copilot by nuking Word and then reinstalling my original version on this machine (Microsoft Word 2021 Version 16.78, October 10 2023: not re-downloaded from the internet, the same install package I used the first time around, which is the stupid part) after which as soon as I could confirm that it came up without the icon, I disabled its ability to auto-update so that it couldn't sneak Copilot back in.